Michael Stokoe, British (1933 - )

A contemporary English painter and printmaker, Michael Stokoe studied at King's School, Bruton and at St. Martins School of Art. For over thirty years he has held the post of senior lecturer at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. During these years his art has been the subject of one man shows at such major galleries as the Redfern Gallery, London, Pace Gallery, New York, and Galerie Presidial Quimpelle, France. Stokoe has also participated in annual group exhibitions with such institutions as the London Group Young Contemporaries, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Royal Academy of Art.

Today Michael Stokoe's prints and paintings are included in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Arts Council of Great Britain. The Government Art Collection, United Kingdom, owns a comprehensive collection of Stokoe's serigraphs from the 1960's and 1970's.
Michael Stokoe's art may generally be divided into two distinct phases. In the first half of his career the artist's work was fully abstract and concentrated upon the relationships between non representational forms and colours. Beginning around 1980, however, he explored figure studies and landscapes in a much more realist manner. Form and colour, however, continues to be his primary aesthetic concern.